Pre-owned twin engine sales up 15%: Aero Asset market report

Aero Asset’s second quarter Heli Market Trends report shows 15% stronger pre-owned twin engine helicopter sales volume in the first half of 2021. Available inventory shrank as the supply of helicopters for sale fell 10% year-on-year.

North America led transaction volume – after trailing Europe last year – accounting for half of global preowned twin engine helicopter transactions to date in 2021. VIP configured sales volume saw an increase of 40% year-on-year.

Aero Asset’s vice president of Market Research, Valerie Pereira, said: “Light twin engine retail sales jumped nearly 40% in the first two quarters of 2021, and medium twin sales 25%. Heavy helicopter sales, however, slumped during the same period.”

Last year, overall sales rose by 10% year-on-year, with 2020 recording the most retail transactions in the past four years. The pre-owned market twine engine market too is making a recovery, Pereira told Helicopter Investor. “As Covid-19 ramped up through the second quarter in 2020, pre-owned twin engine helicopter retail sales volume dropped by half. While the market went into hypotension, a strong recovery was just around the corner,” she said.

Pereira noted that after two consecutive quarters of growth in the number of deals pending (at various stages of transaction), the deal pipeline decreased 35% in the second quarter compared with the first. However, the number of deals pending in the pipeline were up 15% year-to-date, versus the same period in 2021.

The most liquid preowned market year-to-date was the Leonardo AW109S/SP, closely followed by the EC/H145.